Internet Marketing Strategies

November 13, 2018

Read This Before You Accept Guest Posts

Guest posting is a great way to bring new ideas to your blog as well as generating traffic for both yourself and the writer. For the past 6 months, I have been receiving lots of guest posting requests. Unfortunately, I had to reject almost all of them because the content they wanted to write about is irrelevant to you; my readers.

I didn’t always allow guest posting on my blog, but I decided to open it up since WordPress allows you to moderate everything before it goes live. I didn’t want to punish those who want to publish quality work that can help my readers. If you are interested in guest posting for Smart Affiliate Hub, please click here and read the rules!

Note: I am very selective when it comes to accepting guest posts because I don’t want low-quality content.

If you’re a blog owner who wants to allow guest posting. Feel free to check out my page and see what kind of rules I have implemented for people who are interested in guest posting.

Besides the rules, I have a few tips for you just in case you decide to accept guest posts on your blog. I’m hoping with these tips, you can avoid a lot of headaches that associates with guests posts. With that being said, let’s get started!

Make Sure The Guest Poster Is Credible

In the beginning, you’re probably not going to receive any guest post inquiries, but you will as your blog grows in popularity. Right now, I get a few inquiries per week, but most are NOT going to get the opportunity. The point is, don’t accept every guest post inquiry if you truly care about the quality of your blog.

By allowing every guest post, you’re increasing the odds of duplicate, irrelevant content which can hurt your reputation and potentially get penalized by search engines like Google.

Here are steps you can take before accepting guest posters:

Step #1. Remind Yourself What Your Blog Is About

Ask yourself, what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog and if the guest poster will follow that path to accomplish your goals. If your blog talks about how to lose weight. Your readers will get confused, upset, and leave if they start seeing content about things other than how to lose weight.

This is extremely bad for building a readership. People who are loyal readers of yours will leave and never come back because you broke their trust. They trusted you with their time to provide them with quality content that solves their problems.

By allowing random people to post random things on your blog. It will only show that you just want to get blog posts out there with no intention of helping anyone.

Step #2. Does The Guest Poster Know The Subject

One of the biggest reasons why I deny guest post requests is because the guest poster is not an expert in the make money online niche space. They don’t know enough about this subject to provide my readers with quality content.

Usually, my guest posters will provide me with a link to their website. This enables me to do research on their expertise before allowing them to publish content on my blog.

Here’s the thing… anyone can sign up to be a guest poster on my blog. Only those who are legitimate and true professionals will take the time to include their website URL plus a short bio about themselves. If the entire profile is completed, it is a clear sign that this person means business.

After all, it makes no sense to allow someone who knows nothing about bikes if you’re trying to promote the best bikes out there, right?

Besides their website, sometimes I would also check out their Social Profiles. Typically, someone who is an expert in any area will have a large social following. It’s almost a guaranteed rejection if they have no content or followers. This shows me that this person is either new or doesn’t care about his or her brand.

Lastly, a simple Google search with their name will also help you find other content that he or she published in the past. Many credible guest posters will use the same name throughout different blogs, so people can easily recognize him or her.

If he or she has no content to show, that’s okay. I will take extra precaution to read his or her blog post before publishing it. I am a firm believer in giving beginners a chance. We all start somewhere right?

In Conclusion

As long as you’re accepting guest posts from credible sources, you’re going to positively impact your blog. People read for tastes. We are all unique with our own unique writing style. Sometimes offering a different writing style might be refreshing for your readers.

However, as I said. You must be selective and not allow every single guest posts. Don’t feel bad for turning people down or feel scared to ask for previous work to show credibility.

Your blog is your home and your readers are well… your readers. You want to provide the best value to them as possible, so by doing research and taking precaution when accepting guest posts. You are not only protecting your blog, but you are also protecting your readers.

That’s it for now. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Please leave a comment down below and I will do my best to help you out!